Monday, November 19, 2012

"SOMETHING'S AFOOT" GREAT WHODUNIT FUN

Once
you eliminate the butler, the maid, the caretaker, the valet, the
chauffeur and the cook, in other words the staff, all you have left are
the invited guests and one stranger who wanders in from the storm. the
fact is they only one you can actually promise isn't the murderer is the
butler because he is the first one to meet a grisly end. Or does he?

You'll
need to stay on your toes and scrutinize the clues as Goodspeed
Musicals presents a musical whodunit worthy of a Miss Marple or Agatha
Christie in "Something's Afoot" with music, book and lyrics by James
McDonald, David Vos and Robert Gerlach, with additional music and lyrics
by Ed Linderman. This intriguingly fun murder mystery musical has
already been extended to Sunday, December 9.

In the late spring
of 1935, Lord Rancour issues six invitations to come to his retreat for
the weekend. Each guest mistakenly assumes he is the only one to
receive the coveted missive. The ingenue Hope Langdon, a pert and
pretty Julis Osbourne, is the first one to arrive, quickly followed by
the family physician Dr. Grayborn, a chipper Peter Van Wagner. Next to
cross the threshold is the unhappy nephew Nigel, a sulking Benjamin
Eakeley, who fears he has been disinherited by his uncle, the Lord of
the manor, and Lady Grace, a gracious Lynne Winterstellar, who as the
ex-wife doesn't expect any financial favors.

Rounding out the
usual suspects are the military man Colonel Gilweather, a starchy Ed
Dixon, who had a romantic arrangement with Lady Grace in another
lifetime and the industrious, problem solving and take-charge Miss
Tweed, a practical and to-the-point Audrie Neenan.

They are all
greeted by the staff, the butler Clive, a no nonsense Ron Wisnicki,
Lettie the flirty maid, an easily seduced and spooked Liz Pearce and the
caretaker Flint, a knowledgeable industrious Khris Lewin, who knows
where all the bodies are buried until he becomes one.

When Clive
the butler meets his grim end and the body of Lord Rancour is discovered
in his bed, dead, the shenanigans take a decidedly shady turn. Miss
Tweed, in the tradition of famous flinty female detectives before her,
makes assumptions and leaps to conclusions, that include the last
arrival to the castle, a youthful innocent who lost his way in the
storm, Geoffrey, an eager to please Hunter Ryan Herdlicka. Vince Pesce
directs an choreographs this jolly journey where one by one the suspect
list declines as the list of victims multiples.

For tickets ($27
and up), call Goodspeed Musicals, on the Connecticut River in East
Haddam, at 860-873-8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Performances
are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m.,
Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. On
Friday, November 23 there is an extra show at 2 p.m.

It's murder,
in any number of ingenious ways, worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock plot,
and you'll love weighing the clues...or just sitting back and enjoying
the deadly fun.